Posts filed under ‘Keillor’

“Tom was one of radio’s great clowns,” he said. “He was serious about silliness and worked hard to get a moo exactly right and the cluck too and the woof. His whinny was amazing — noble, vulnerable, articulate. He did bagpipes, helicopters, mortars, common drunks, caribou (and elands and elk and wapiti), garbage trucks backing up, handsaws and hammers, and a beautiful vocalization of a man falling from a great height into piranha-infested waters.”

“Oh the great dignity of the French. A Midwesterner is deeply impressed by this. Their elegance, their manner, their self-possession. Nobody is goofy or sloppy or flabby, everyone has a look about him, and is deep in thought, and if you look at them, they look straight back at you. Even the teenagers. I’d imitate them if only I knew how. Like other Europeans, they are not apologetic about occupying their space —– where we Minnesotans would say Excuse me as we brush by someone, Europeans simply edge past you and if your peripheries touch they don’t apologize for it —- but the French have that special unmistakeable élan and one envies them for it. And also the interesting mix of African and Asian and Middle Eastern and French faces and many many hybrids. I passed the restaurant where I had made a dinner reservation for 7:30 —- Ze Kitchen Galerie on Rue des Grands Augustins — and at 6:30 the kitchen staff was sitting at a long table and eating their dinner. The chefs and waiters and the bottle-washers all together, eating the same food off the same china as the clientele and enjoying a glass of wine. Remarkable. So democratic.”